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“We Want to Go Home!” The Great Petition of the Zhiqing, Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, 1978–1979*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 June 2009

Bin Yang
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Abstract

This article examines, both in internal and international contexts, the petition of the zhiqing in Xishuangbanna, Yunnan, during the 1978–79 transition. It first shows how a shortage of labour on Xishuangbanna state rubber farms led to the arrival of the zhiqing from other regions. It then reviews their lives and sufferings of these revolutionary youths, followed by an analysis of the petition in terms of its process and result. This article proposes three key reasons for the win-win result: the extraordinary leadership and organization of the zhiqing, factional struggles within the Chinese Communist Party, and the Sino-Vietnamese War. Finally, it attempts to fit this event into recent literature on mass resistance in contemporary China.

Type
Research Article
Information
The China Quarterly , Volume 198 , June 2009 , pp. 401 - 421
Copyright
Copyright © The China Quarterly 2009

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References

1 The figure varies, depending on different calculations.

2 Fan, Zhao, Yi Zhengcheng (Recalling the Journey of my Expedition) (Beijing: Zhongguo nongye chubanshe, 2003), p. 208Google Scholar.

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8 Ibid. pp. 17–20.

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11 Ibid. pp. 22–24.

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20 Ibid. pp. 33–34.

21 Interviews, Kunming and Chongqing, June 2007.

22 Interviews, Chongqing, June 2007.

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29 Official figures were over 6,000. See Zhao Fan, Recalling the Journey of my Expedition, p. 208. This figure was obviously underestimated.

30 Zhuo Renzheng, “Appropriately handling the zhiqing's urban return,” Part I, A12.

31 Ibid.

32 Ding Huimin, “The zhiqing of Xishuangbanna are acting,” p. 407.

33 Ibid. p. 406.

34 Ibid. pp. 407–08.

35 Ibid. pp. 406–08. Only small skirmishes occurred on some farms.

36 Ibid. p. 409.

37 “QingYuanshu” (“The petition letter”), in Jufeng, p. 599.

38 Ding Huimin, “The zhiqing of Xishuangbanna are acting,” p. 411.

39 Ibid. p. 412.

40 Ibid. pp. 412–15.

41 Interview, Kunming, 22 December 2007. Factionalism accompanied the whole process, but it indeed distracted local and provincial leaders, and facilitated the final solution. While many details of the movement are still open to question, Ding Huimin as the initiator and key leader remains unchallenged.

42 Ding Huimin, “The zhiqing of Xishuangbanna are acting,” p. 416.

43 Ibid. p. 418.

44 Ibid. pp. 416–18.

45 Ibid., p. 422.

46 Ibid. pp. 423–24.

47 Ibid. p. 425. Liu Tingming, a member of group one, met Ding Huimin in Beijing, but the other representatives of group one arrived about a week after Ding left Beijing on 5 January 1979.

48 Ibid. p. 428.

49 Ibid. pp. 428–29. The above is based on Ding's recollections. Also see Renzheng, Zhuo, “Tuoshan chuli zhiqing fancheng, kaiqi zhongguo gaige zhi men” (“Appropriately handling the zhiqing's urban return, and opening China's door of reform”), Part II, Shenghuo xinbao, Kunming, Yunnan, 9 May 2008, p. A13Google Scholar.

50 Wang Zhen was responsible for mobilizing many urban youth and the zhiqing to Xinjiang. As such, the zhiqing called him “a human trafficker (renfanzi).” Yang Qingliang, “Ba mianzi liugei muqin, ba lizhi liugei ziji” (“Give face to mum; leave reason to ourselves”), in Liu Xiaomeng, An Oral History of Chinese Zhiqing, p. 523.

51 Ding Huimin, “The zhiqing of Xishuangbanna are acting,” p. 432.

52 Ibid. p. 433.

53 Ibid. p. 435.

54 Interview. Kunming, 22 December 2007.

55 Zhao Fan, Recalling the Journey of my Expedition, p. 209.

56 Ibid.

57 Ibid. p. 210.

58 Ibid. p. 211.

59 Ibid. pp. 211–12.

60 Ibid. pp. 213 and 215.

61 Ibid. p. 215.

62 Ibid.

63 Zhuo Renzheng, “Appropriately handling the zhiqing's urban return,” Part II, p. A07.

64 Zhao Fan, Recalling the Journey of my Expedition, pp. 216–17.

65 Yunnan Zhiqing Lianyihui, “Chronicle of the up-to-mountain and down-to-village zhiqing movement in Yunnan,” p. 62.

66 Ding Huimin, “The zhiqing of Xishuangbanna are acting,” p. 437.

67 Nongkenzhi, p. 36.

68 Liu Xiaomeng, An Oral History of Chinese Zhiqing, p. 20.

69 Ibid. pp. 33–34.

70 Ibid. p. 796.

71 The Xinjiang event is a summary of the memoirs of Ouyang Lian and Yang Qingliang, both leaders of the movement. Ouyang was sentenced to four years in prison. Ouyang Lian, “Akesu shijian shimo” (“A history of the Akesu event”), in Liu Xiaomeng, An Oral History of Chinese Zhiqing, pp. 445–505; Yang Qingliang, “Give face to mum.”

72 For some details, see Pan Yihong, Tempered in the Revolutionary Furnace, pp. 232–33. Indeed, many ex-zhiqing have now organized themselves and negotiated with both central and local governments for their social welfare and other interests. Ding Huimin remains one of the most active and prominent leaders.

73 Bernstein, Up to the Mountains and Down to the Villages, pp. 263–89.

74 This point was emphasized by Pan Yihong. See Pan Yihong, Tempered in the Revolutionary Furnace, p. 228.

75 Zhao might later have been criticized for his words and decisions in Yunnan. Later in the Xinjiang event, although he was sympathetic, he could not do the same as in Yunnan. Yang Qingliang, “Give face to mum,” p. 522.

76 Jufeng, p. 632.

77 Zhuo Renzheng, “Appropriately handling the zhiqing's urban return,” Part I, pp. A12–A13, Part II, pp. A06–A07.

78 Zhao Fan, Recalling the Journey of my Expedition, p. 208.

79 Zhuo Renzheng, “Appropriately handling the zhiqing's urban return,” Part I, pp. A12–A13, Part II, pp. A06–A07.

80 Zhuo Renzheng, “Appropriately handling the zhiqing's urban return,” Part I, p. A12.

81 Ibid. p. A13.

82 Zhao Fan, Recalling the Journey of my Expedition, p. 208.

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84 Zhuo Renzheng, “Appropriately handling the zhiqing's urban return,” Part I, p. A13.

85 Ding Huimin, “The zhiqing of Xishuangbanna are acting,” p. 433.

86 Zhuo Renzheng, “Appropriately handling the zhiqing's urban return,” Part II, p. A06.

87 Ibid.

88 Honglin, Du, Fengchao dangluo-Zhongguo zhishiqingnian shangshanxiaxiang yundongshi (The Ebb and Flow of the Tide: A History of Chinese Zhiqing Up-to-Mountain and Down-to-Village Movement) (Shenzhen: Haitian chubanshe, 1993), pp. 402–03Google Scholar.

89 Ibid. p. 403.

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94 Ibid. p. 62.

95 Ibid. p. 58.

96 Ibid. p. 72.

97 Ibid. p. 62.

98 I am grateful to an anonymous reviewer for this point. And I agree that the Democracy Wall Movement had a greater role than the zhiqing movement in the CCP power struggle.

99 Zhao Fan, Recalling the Journey of my Expedition, p. 218.

100 Yang Qingliang, “Give face to mum,” p. 524.

101 Pan Yihong, Tempered in the Revolutionary Furnace, p. 231.

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104 Ibid. pp. 409–10.

105 See Ding Huimin's online memoir, http://www.cqbnzq.com/ShowPost.asp?ThreadID=853. This, however, might be mistakenly recalled.

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107 O'Brien and Li, Rightful Resistance in Rural China, p. 2.

108 Ibid. p. 3.

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110 Joseph W. Esherick and Jeffery N. Wasserstrom, “Acting out democracy: political theater in modern China,” in Wasserstrom and Perry, Popular Protest and Political Cultural in Modern China, p. 36.

111 Ibid. pp. 53–54.